


Freefall

by thebeastinme



Series: The Times They Brought Harry Back [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Depression, F/M, Fluff, M/M, girl!Harry, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-07
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 03:39:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinme/pseuds/thebeastinme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's falling, and the boys don't know what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> girl!Harry  
> This is really close to my heart, so enjoy x

Harry Styles.   
What comes to mind when you hear the name?  
Ask a journalist, you’ll get words like whore, slut, did you know she slept with a man old enough to be her father?  
Ask Louis Tomlinson, or Niall Horan, or Liam Payne, or Zayn Malik, and you’ll get a look. A look that was all it took to fall in love with the sun. She was bright, and peppy.   
Most days, at least.   
Her off days were just… off.  
There was no other way to describe them, just simply off.   
Louis knew what to do. Always did, he could get into her head, he could get her to open up. All of the boys knew she didn’t like talking about herself, it was just a fact. All they knew about her they had gotten from either her being drunk, or her mother, telling them what to look for.   
They had actually gotten a list from Anne, the darling Anne. She sent them a list of things to watch for, things that signaled the start of the fall. Things that meant she couldn’t be by herself, that if she wore long sleeves or too many bracelets you could call her on it, and she wasn’t allowed to be alone.   
Harry didn’t know Anne had given them a list.   
Well, she suspected something, but in all honesty, she was glad. She didn’t have to deal with it on her own anymore, she could just sit with Zayn and smoke for hours, or drink tea with Niall, or go for a walk with Liam, or just be with Louis. Louis was the easiest, she could just be. She didn’t have to do anything, just lay there and let the tears fall and allow him to hold her, allow herself to fall asleep, her small frame clutched tightly by Louis’ strong, muscled arms.   
But the first time it happened, they didn’t know what to do.   
She just started screaming, holding her head, trying, trying sososo hard to feel something, to hear herself, to just think.   
“Harry, please, stop screaming, please, darling,” Louis couldn’t do anything, not this time, he had no clue what to do.   
When she finally stopped, she had taken a fearful look around, and ran out.   
To this day, they didn’t know where she had gone.   
She refused to tell them.  
But when she finally did come back, she was silent.   
No words, at all… Niall remembered grabbing her, shaking her, and then kissing her face, over and over, as she was stiff in his arms. Zayn hadn’t tried to touch her, he knew she couldn’t cope with that right now; it was him who had dragged Niall away, Zayn who had allowed Louis to take over, Zayn who called Anne and got her a plane ticket, Zayn who did everything he possibly could just so he could have Harry back.   
She was the glue, the one that they needed. Harry was bright, when she walked in a room, everyone saw her, everyone looked, everyone noticed.  
Liam knew it killed Harry, how she couldn’t be normal, that every move she made in public, every move she made anywhere honestly was watched and analyzed by people who just wanted their money. Liam watched as the fall started, he was always the first to notice, the first to pull Louis aside and tell him it was time.   
Time to watch, to plan, to tell the higher-ups that they needed a break, that if they wanted to keep using Harry the way they did then she needed a break, they all did.   
“Harry, babe, can you open the door? Your mum’s here, do you want to see her?’   
It was three days later, and Zayn had called Anne, who had just sighed into the phone.   
“Zayn, darling, put Liam or Louis on the line for a second, yeah?” He had handed his mobile to Liam, and curled up against his strong chest.   
“Hello?” He listened for a second. “Oh, hello Anne, how are you?”   
More silence.  
“Okay, yeah, I’ll tell them. So Saturday around half-noon?” He nodded, and took a deep breath. “Okay, yeah. Love you too, Anne. Bye.” Zayn snuggled into his grasp, taking the mobile and throwing it across the room.   
“Is she coming down?”   
“Yeah, half-noon Saturday.” Zayn had reached up and taken Liam’s face in his hands and gently kissed his forehead.   
“Relax, you’ll get wrinkles.”   
“I know, I just can’t imagine how the rest of this week is going to go, can Anne get her back, or does she need to go home, or,” Zayn pressed their lips together, stealing the words out of his mouth.   
“Breathe. It’ll be okay.”   
Niall had come in afterwards, snuggling in between them, trying to find some comfort in the “parents” of the group.   
Louis didn’t move from the floor outside Harry’s room that night, waiting for her to say something.   
She didn’t. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
When Anne finally got there and was walking into the flat, she wrapped her arms around Louis, leaning down and pressing kisses to his hair.   
“She’ll be alright, love, I know just what to do.”  
Anne had knocked on the door, keeping one hand on Louis’ head. “Harry, love, open the door for me, yeah?”   
A long minute’s silence, and then it opened, revealing a very skinny, pale Harry, hair a mess and scratches up and down her arms. “Oh, darling,” Anne had pulled her daughter into her arms, letting her sag against her body, supporting the youngest, trying to take the pain away. “C’mon, babe, let’s get you a proper shower, yeah?”  
They’d disappeared into the bathroom for an hour, enough time for Zayn and Liam to get Louis into clean clothes and force some food down his throat.   
When they came out, Harry’s hair was straight and Anne’s arms were wrapped around her small waist, leading her to the couch and setting her down.  
“There you go, all clean now, I’ll go find some tea, alright?” Harry hadn’t said a word, just looked up at her mother like she was a child and her mum held all the secrets to the world.   
The amount of trust and love Harry had for her Mum was unbelievable, really.   
“Harry?” Louis sat next to her, stroking a hand down her back. “Harry, are you okay?” She turned towards him, slowly, opened her mouth, and.   
Collapsed against him, asleep.   
“Oh, well, I’m guessing she hasn’t slept in a while.” Anne came back in the room, and smiled gently.   
“She’s in a low mood. I can’t do much, you just can’t let her be alone, or let her shut herself in her room, no, that can’t happen. If she wears long sleeves or bracelets, call me, and we’ll deal with it. I’ve got work tomorrow, I have to get back. Tell her I love her, yeah?”   
Just like that, Anne was gone, leaving behind a sleeping Harry and a bewildered Louis, Niall, Zayn, and Liam.


	2. Would you ever feel guilty?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next part of The Times series, new chapter will be up in a few days!! Thanks for all the love x

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started this series a while ago, and have been playing around with it for awhile, but I finally got a laptop so I'll be writing a lot more now. Uhm, sorry for the awkward plot, I'm still learning my way around my characters. All commetns appreciated. Love you all x

This time, they saw it coming. Louis could see it in her eyes, and it scared him. He didn’t know what to do or how to ask her if she was okay, because her default answer was yes, I am fine. 

Liam, the worrier that he was, worried. He told Zayn about it, late at night, while they were wrapped up in each other, trying to maintain some sort of calmness.   
Niall tried to fix it with fun. He took Harry on day trips, just leaving the hotel and turning off their phones. He got on Paul’s last nerve, but it was worth it, because when they returned, Harry wouldn’t go shut herself in her room. No, she would curl up on Louis’ lap and whisper dirty things to him about the things she and Niall saw at wherever they went. 

 

But it wasn’t enough. Three weeks before the end of the tour, she wouldn’t come out of her hotel room. Only Paul had a keycard, because Harry had snitched Liam’s spare from his back under the pretense of looking flamingo-dancing classes for Niall. Liam spent six hours banging on the door, only o get on twitter and realize their fans had tweeted him pictures of Harry on the balcony, doing something on hr laptop. He breathed a sigh of relief, and slid down to sit against the door, reasoning that she would open the door when she was ready. Louis didn’t take that approach, he wanted Harry, and he wanted to talk to her now. At one point, he was ready to jump from Niall’s balcony to hers, but Niall saw it coming and wouldn’t open the door, saying he was keeping an eye on her and keeping her safe.

 

Rumors arose in the news, spurred on by Niall trying to get Harry to talk to him over the balcony, and eventually, they got Paul’s spare key and let themselves in around three a.m. 

“Harry, where are you?” Louis yelled into the room, disturbing the almost delicate silence. 

The bathroom door was open, and they could hear her humming along to a song while she brushed through her hair. 

“Lou, why are you yelling?” She replied tiredly, resting a hand on her hip, combing the other hand through her bangs, and allowing her heavy waves fall down her back.   
“Harry, babe, we were worried, you can’t blame us.” Zayn pushed past Louis, gathering up the youngest in his arms, whispering sweet words in her ear, and then tugged her body up into a bridal carry, and sat down on the bed, letting her curl up on his lap. “Oh, darling,” 

Liam sat next to him on the bed, pulling Harry’s hands away from her body, clutching them and looking at her with massive puppy dog eyes.   
“I missed you.” She pulled him closer, intertwining their fingers until they couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. “I missed you too, Li. I’m sorry.” She planted a gentle kiss on his forehead, and pulled her hands away, standing up and walking to Louis. “Hey, Lou.” He framed her face in his hands, peering into her eyes. After some time, he pulled away, satisfied with what he saw in there. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled their bodies tight together, letting his lips float over hers.  
She closed her eyes, letting him support her body, and he led her to the bed, where Liam and Zayn were curled around each other, watching the exchange with bleary eyes.   
She blinked her eyes open a few times, and searched the room, finally finding Niall sitting at the desk, on her laptop.   
“Niall?” He turned around, eyes guilty, but in the dark, she couldn't see that. “Ni, come to bed.”  
He obliged, shutting her laptop and kicking off his shoes, falling onto the bed beside her, weaving a hand into her hair, planting a kiss on her cheek. They feel asleep curled up like puppies, and stayed intertwined for the next two days until they were required to make an appearance.


End file.
